Saturday, March 12, 2016

No censoring of ice age cometh articles at WUWT

Within hours of Anthony Watts talking about legitimacy, openness and honesty on his blog, he posted an utter rubbish "ice age cometh" article from Stanmore Coal director Viv Forbes (archived here). No openness about Viv's coal connections. Anthony might need more time to "research and write", however by promoting Viv's article he demonstrates that research and writing count for little at WUWT.

Viv claims "it's the sun", though he acknowledges there are also Milankovitch cycles. After dismissing decades of rapid warming as "weather ripples and waves", he wrote:

In the medium term, Earth temperature trends are influenced by variations in solar activities as evidenced by sun-spot cycles. These variations affect solar intensity, cosmic rays, clouds and Earth temperature, causing medium-term climatic events like the Little Ice Age and the Modern Warming. There are persuasive signs that recent solar activity has peaked. So we can expect cooler weather soon.

Curiously, immediately after that paragraph, there was a garish picture showing how the current waning solar cycle was considerable less strong than the previous one, which was also less strong than the one before it, yet global mean surface temperature is at record high levels.
Viv had to bypass most of the planet and travel to remote parts of Greenland and East Antartica to find somewhere where snow has been falling in greater quantities. That was so he could write:

There are many signs that Earth’s climate is gradually cooling (as Prof Carter shows in the video above).
For example, snow and ice is accumulating.

Yeah, he tried to include a video of the science denier Bob Carter (now departed), but it didn't work. Something must be wrong with the link. Not that any of the people commenting so far has noticed. (I did find the video that was meant to be posted. It was nothing more than another example of perfidious Bob Carter's fudgery and obfuscation and science denial.)

Now about that accumulation of snow and ice - Viv cited some buried WWII aeroplanes in south east Greenland, and Mawson and Colbeck Huts in East Antarctica. Well, there has been a lot of snow in the normally dry East Antarctica in recent years and around Colbeck Hut in particular. And south-east Greenland is reported as the spot where "snow accumulation is the highest in Greenland" The fact that snowfall may be increasing in some areas could be a sign of a more humid atmosphere. It most certainly is not a sign that the world is cooling.

Despite the fact that most, but not all, Himalayan glaciers are shrinking, Viv claimed the opposite. He's an inveterate liar.

A lot of Viv's article was just links to nonsense on other denier blogs, like his claim that the world hasn't warmed in 58 years. His source? Arch disinformer "Steve Goddard" who specialises in falsely accusing scientists of faking data. Sheesh! See for yourself. The chart below shows that 58 years ago it was more than 0.8 °C colder than it was last year.

commieBob is delighted to find a prediction he likes, instead of the predictions of more warming to come. Here are some others he'll enjoy. None of them look like eventuating either.

March 11, 2016 at 3:29 pm
We have a prediction. That’s way better than the alarmists where everything is taken as proof of CAGW. The sun rises and sets; CAGW. (OK that bit was an exaggeration)

Anthony should wonder if he has a problem when one of his hard-core denier fans, Pamela Gray, is displeased with an article. She wrote:

March 11, 2016 at 4:34 pm
Lordy. Let’s hope this letter, with its main inyourface picture of solarcyclomania and statement that everythingcauseseverythingmechanism rides the road to the bottom of the webpage in a hurry. Embarrassing.

But to see what the climate is doing we must look long-term and study the glacial cycles. The Milankovitch cycles of Earth in the solar system control these.

I just love how he pretends that these things are NOT being studied, and that it doesn't occur to his credulous fans that the reason he knows about them in the first place is because such things ARE studied and NOT ignored.

As for Milankovitch cycles predicting an imminent ice age, well, that's pretty much a howler if one takes the time to understand this graphic.

John and Bill, I tried Facebook some time ago and gave up in frustration. One thing on the internet that I cannot stand is Facebook. It's an affront to bloggers everywhere.

My main complaints are - it is the most unintuitive website that I've ever come across; it doesn't respect privacy; it is Kludgy with no formatting options I can find; and it is overly intrusive. It is not merely overly intrusive, it is abusively intrusive.

However given that some people seem to use it a lot I might give it another try. I'll waste a few more hours with it. If at the end of that time my irritability quotient is above 500, I'll stop. If I can get it to do 5% or more of what it should, I'll let you know and add it to the sidebar.

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All you need to know about WUWT

WUWT insider Willis Eschenbach tells you all you need to know about Anthony Watts and his blog, WattsUpWithThat (WUWT). As part of his scathing commentary, Wondering Willis accuses Anthony Watts of being clueless about the blog articles he posts. To paraphrase:

Even if Anthony had a year to analyze and dissect each piece...(he couldn't tell if it would)... stand the harsh light of public exposure.

Definition of Denier (Oxford): A person who denies something, especially someone who refuses to admit the truth of a concept or proposition that is supported by the majority of scientific or historical evidence.
‘a prominent denier of global warming’
‘a climate change denier’

Alternative definition: A former French coin, equal to one twelfth of a Sou, which was withdrawn in the 19th century. Oxford. (The denier has since resurfaced with reduced value.)